Discover: What's the Best Way to Use Less Electricity?

By using devices carefully, you can save electricity.

When we are using electricity, we should be aware that electricity costs money and that, somewhere, electricity must be made. In Alberta, electricity is made by burning coal and natural gas to make steam to turn turbines, which turn generators. Alberta also uses smaller amounts of water, wind, and biomass or waste (such as livestock manure) to make electricity.   Click on these links: History Alberta, Alberta Energy or Canada Energy for more specific information.

Alberta is not currently using its large geothermal potential, but British Columbia and Manitoba are beginning to use geothermal energy.  Click on these links: Huffington Post  or CBC News for more information. 

Countries with sunny weather such as Costa Rica, or Turkey and Greece in the Mediterranean use solar power to change sun energy into electricity.

Other countries without natural resources such as Korea and Japan use nuclear energy.  Power plants split atoms to produce steam which creates electricity.

As everyone uses more electricity, more power plants have to be built.  But, we can use electricity more efficiently. We can

• develop methods to produce power more efficiently


• use less electricity to save our resources so we will have resources to use long into the future.  We can do many simple things to save electricity, such as turning off lights when we leave a room. 


• make good choices when we buy electrical devices. Some devices are much more efficient than others are. A more efficient device does more than a less efficient device using the same amount of electricity.

Video

Watch Biogas: How cow manure and french fries run a power plant on the farm!

Biogas

  Video

Watch Understanding Efficiency Labels. Devices with the highest efficiency get the "Energy Star" rating. These are good choices that will save electrical energy and will cost less to use. Even cars have EnerGuide labels for gasoline efficiency!

Understanding Efficiency Labels

  Technology Connection

Did you know Iceland will spend more money for electricity to mine bitcoin (a computer type of money) than to heat their homes? Google consumes as much energy as the city of San Fransisco. The Internet is an energy-hungry system. It's a network of networks and each network consists of computers. Those computers consume lots of power.